Percorso a tema

The Rhineland Offensive

Paesi Bassi

Condividi

Tipo

Camminata

Distanza

19.41 km

This route, which runs through villages, past meadows, through the forest and over the German border, connects two significant memorial sites.

The great Rhineland Offensive got underway on 8 February 1945, with the objective of securing a passage for the troops across the Rhine, occupying the Rhineland and ultimately pushing on to Berlin. On this momentous day, hundreds of thousands of Allied troops departed from Nijmegen and elsewhere, heading over the border to Germany via the Ooijpolder and over the Groesbeek hills. This operation was named Operation Veritable. One of the bloodiest battles fought during the Rhineland Offensive was the Battle of the Reichswald, to the south of Kleve (Cleves).

The walking tour connects two cemeteries that are the final resting place of a large part of the Allied soldiers who fell during Operation Veritable in the Nijmegen and Rhineland areas: the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. The route runs through meadows, the (former front-line) village of Groesbeek, over the German border and through the infamous Reichswald forest.